Preparing for Yom Kippur - musical round-up

So much of the experience of Yom Kippur is about the music. I have included some selections of music that I hope gets you in the mood for t'shuvah.

This is a fairly unadorned version of El Nora Alila

This version of the same melody has a full orchestra, yet it conveys much of the feeling of singing in synagogue when everyone is singing . I love watching the audience singing along at the end.

This piyut/ liturgical poem is one of my favorites

This rendition of selichot is entirely terrific. Ben Zion Shenker was a wonderful composer and an even better davener. This is old time Jewish services at it's best. If you can't make it to services, just listen to this.

http://youtu.be/Nz9VClcqqmA

For a selection of seasonal music zemer reshet and another completely different selection from the Piyut website. I was trying to find the version of כבקרת רועה עדרו that I grew up with but it seems that Shlomo Carlebach's version has functioned like musical kudzu and has crowded out all other versions. There is nothing wrong with Carlebach's version, but I miss hearing the pretty tune I grew up with.

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Connecting with the past

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The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night. I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1) אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2) אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3) יָאֵר יְהֹ...

מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים

וְנֶאֱמָן אַתָּה לְהַחֲיוֹת מֵתִים: בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְהֹוָה מְחַיֵּה הַמֵּתִים You are faithful to restore the dead to life. Blessed are You, Adonoy, Resurrector of the dead. That particular line is recited at every single prayer service every day three times a day, unless you use a Reform or Reconstructionist prayer book . In those liturgies instead of praising God for resurrecting the dead God is praised for giving life to all. I am enough of a modern woman, a modern thinker, to not actually believe in the actual resurrection of the dead. I don't actually expect all of the residents of the Workmen's Circle section of Mount Hebron cemetery in Queens to get up and get back to work at their sewing machines. I don't expect the young children buried here or the babies buried here to one day get up and frolic. Yet, every single time I get up to lead services I say those words about the reanimating of the dead with every fiber of my being. Yesterday, I e...

sarah in nyc

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